In the early nineties, technology really exploded out of the traditional Data Center environment. PC's, LAN's, WAN's, Midranges, Web and Telecommunications environments now competed with the traditional Data Center in providing mission critical systems for the company. In many companies, it was the business areas,
not IT, who were pushing the creative use of these new technologies to solve their business problems and maintain a competitive advantage.

Because the business process is now so interwoven with today's technology, the likelihood of a company experiencing a significant interruption has dramatically increased. Any outage effecting the complex business/technical environment, can have a cascade effect on the entire company.

Planners now need to be more proactive in protecting their companies from crippling business interruptions. This proactive approach is the most significant difference between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery /Business Resumption.